There
were several geological references to the coprolites being extracted in the
Shefford area but unfortunately they did not give exact locations except to say
they were ”found at or near the base of the gault
(clay) in sufficient quantity to pay for working in several parts of the
county, eg. at Shefford in Beds.• Analyses made of a
seam revealed a high content of about 60% phosphate of lime which made them
much sought after by manure manufacturers who wanted them for conversion into
superphosphate. (Jukes-Brown,•Cretaceous
Rocks of Great Britain,•1900,pp430-2) Jukes-Brown was supplied with this
information by John Bennet Lawes whose colleague, Dr.A.Voelker,
an anlytical chemist working for him, did the
testing. Lawes had his own manure company involved in raising them in the
Shillington area from 1862 into the 1880‘s so there was every likelihood he was
either responsible for the workings or was purchasing them from a farmer or
contractor who was working them. The major documented workings were in what was
then the village of Campton, just south of Highlands Lodge Farm. (See Campton)
The local historian, D.J.Cadman, in his history of
the village made a brief reference to them being raised for use as fertiliser
in his account of the local agriculture.

”To
obtain a correctly balanced supply of soil nutrients, farmers began to use
other fertilisers including guanao from Peru and supoerphosphate a local supply of phosphate wss found in coprolites. These were nodules formed around
animal remains, possibly including the dung of dinosaurs. they
were found at the top of the gault clay and dug from
shallow pits in many different parts of the county anbdroups of these were on Highlands Farm. The nodules
were washed in a water-filled hole and transported on a short stretch of
narrow-guage track to the Gravenhurst
Road. From where they went by cart to Shefford Station and by rail to a
crushing mill - possibly the one at Royston.•

(D.J.Cadman,•Campton,•1975)

The
Farmers Manure Company processed the fossils at their Chemical Works in Royston
and , whilst it is possible they were similarly
purchasing them, the major contractor in the area was Lawes.

The
first geological map also showed that coprolites were found northwest of
Shefford, in an old gravel pit on the lane from Appley
Corner to Standalone Farm, not far from ”The Greyhound• (6• Beds.22NW 1886)
There was no indication they were worked but if a large deposit had been found
there is the likelihood they would have been raised as there was an enormous
demand for them, particularly during the 1870‘s. (Beds.Mag,8,p251) In 1876, one
trade directory stated that there were 1400 people working in the Shillington
area which may well have encompassed Shefford. (Harrods Directory, Beds.1876)

When
the diggings became exhausted or the seam too uneconomic to exploit further
many coprolite labourers left the area to find work in the growing industrial
towns but Cadman suggested many in this area were able to get back into farm
labour on those farms which concentrated on market gardening.

”With
expanding markets in the North and London, now easily accessible by rail,
market gardeners who were almost free from overseas competitoion
did not suffer as much in the depression as did the arable and stock farmers.•